Human Experiences, Proximity, Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things

White House Test Bed for the Internet of Things

While Beijing plans to spend 5 billion yuan on the Internet of Things by 2015, the White House is getting in on the act by inviting applications to an IoT “test bed” – while asking developers to foot the bill. It’s a start, I suppose.

The test bed communities will go live April 2014 and will demonstrate what the IoT can do to “improve safety, sustainability, efficiency, mobility, and overall quality of life”.

The project website invites applicants to attend a brainstorming session at the White House and to execute examples of IoT technology that can be demonstrated at a SmartAmerica Symposium in May of next year. With the usual policy slash government geekery, they’re calling it CPS – for cyber/physical systems….an SEO delight if I ever heard one!

The application form asks you to focus on the financial and economic benefits of your proposed tech “as well as impacts on energy, health, safety, environment, and other quality of life aspects.”

Their slide show, presented during a recent Webinar, envisions a CPS ‘fabric’ that holds together energy, avionics, transportation and other CPS services. I won’t be expecting the next ‘big thing’ from the initiative, and will look to the burgeoning IoT start-up world for cooler stuff, but at least it’s a nod in the right direction.

Although frankly, it reminds me that a trip to China is probably a better way to see what massive installations of cyber/physical systems might shape up to be.